Crowd of 8,000 to 10,000 protest abortion Saturday in downtown Dallas

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Tom Fox/Staff Photographer

A flag flown at a Washington, D.C., anti-abortion rally waved in the wind as thousands gathered outside the Earle Cabell Federal Building during the March for Life on Saturday. The event marked the 40th anniversary of the decision in the Roe vs. Wade case, which was filed at a district court in the Cabell building.

Angela Martinez-Balderaz should not have been standing on a stage in downtown Dallas on Saturday, addressing thousands who had come to protest the 40th anniversary of legal U.S. abortions.

“Twenty-five years ago, this could have been the city that was the death of me,” said the 25-year-old Grand Prairie woman, who described how her mother had tried to abort her through legal means and then by taking illegal drugs.

“I was born healthy, alive and without any sickness,” Martinez-Balderaz told the cheering crowd. “Speak up for the unborn. I could have been one of them.”

An estimated 8,000 to 10,000 anti-abortion demonstrators marched from the Cathedral Shrine of the Virgin of Guadalupe on Ross Avenue to the Earle Cabell Federal Building on Griffin Street, where the Roe vs. Wade abortion lawsuit was filed in 1970.

Anti-abortion rallies have been staged at this site for years, although this year the crowd was larger in recognition of the landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision, which was handed down on Jan. 22, 1973.

“We wanted to pray at the court building where the lawsuit began,” said Sister Bernadette Nguyen, who drove from Houston with a group of Vietnamese Dominican Sisters. They recited the rosary as the march wound through largely vacant downtown streets.

The protest drew a wide range of ethnic groups, many of whom carried homemade or manufactured signs that targeted abortion. “Don’t Mess With Unborn Texans,” warned one sign. “Save Da Babies,” said another.

Malyss Brightwell, an 11-year-old girl from Mesquite, had made a glittery sign stating “Fight for Life, Stop Abortion.” It was her idea to attend, she said, but she brought along her mother, Darlynda Brightwell, so they could share their first protest against abortion.

“I just want abortion to end because it’s murder,” the girl said.

The attendees were mainly Catholics, who had been enlisted by their pastors to take a public stand against abortion. They came from small towns and cities throughout North and East Texas as well as some Dallas parishes.

“We’re just tired of the killing of babies,” said Gina Fuller of McKinney, a member of St. Gabriel’s Catholic Church. “We believe these children have a right to live like every other child in America.”

Others gave more personal reasons for showing up, including dozens who carried signs that read, “Women Do Regret Abortions.”

Joanie Quint of Terrell carried such a sign, but said she was marching on behalf of her sister, who had undergone a legal abortion in 1973.

“She married later and couldn’t have kids,” Quint recalled. “She blamed the abortion for it. It was always too painful for her to go to a march like this, and then she died in a car accident two years ago.”

Some speakers at a post-march rally focused on the number of abortions performed since the Supreme Court ruling. In 2011, the Guttmacher Institute, a nonprofit organization that tracks abortions, estimated that 50 million U.S. abortions had been performed from 1973 through 2008.

“This holocaust has to come to an end,” said Bishop Kevin Farrell, one of a dozen rally speakers.

“Fifty-three million people — stop for a moment to think — 53 million children were not defended,” he said. “We must do much more to create an environment, an atmosphere where human life is the most important gift. We must respect human life from conception to natural death.”

The six-hour protest began with prayers recited outside a Dallas abortion clinic, followed by a bilingual Mass at the Catholic cathedral and a worship service at First Baptist Church downtown.

The events were sponsored by the Catholic Pro-Life Committee of North Texas, Texans for Life Coalition, Pro-Life Dallas, Catholics Respect Life of Fort Worth, First Baptist Dallas and Hike for Life Texas.

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